Woman Hurt In Air Products Blast She Was Distilling Chemical At Time Of Explosion

Others Exposed.

September 14, 2000|By KIRK BELDON JACKSON, The Morning Call

A researcher was injured in an explosion Wednesday at a research laboratory in the Air Products and Chemicals plant in Trexlertown.

Five other employees also were held for observation after possible exposure to a dangerous chemical, an emergency official said.

The injured researcher was distilling the chemical dichlorodimethylsilane at the time of the explosion, said Capt. Samir Ashmar, fire marshal of the Trexlertown Fire Company.

She and the other victims were taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital, Salisbury Township. The woman's condition was not known late Wednesday.

Gene Ervin, Air Products' director of environmental health and safety, said the woman was not seriously hurt and the other workers were "fine."

Of the five other workers two were custodians, two were security guards and the other was an employee working nearby, said Elizabeth L. Klebe, Air Products spokewoman.

The workers exposed to the chemical were decontaminated before being taken to LVH, Ashmar said.

Ashmar said the woman, who was not identified, was distilling the chemical under heat and in a vacuum when it exploded. Klebe said the researcher was working alone.

Ashmar said there may have been a small fire in the lab after the explosion. "Upon arrival there was some smoke observed," he said.

Ervin said that company officials want to speak to the researcher involved. "At this point we do not know exactly what she was doing," he said. "We do know there was a distillation involved."

He said he didn't know if the researcher was wearing protective gear, but said that company employees receive extensive training in safety.

The woman was distilling less than a litre of the chemical, he said.

Asked how big the explosion was, Ashmar said, `Let's just say it was larger than a firecracker.

"The major impact is in the hooded area of the lab," Ashmar said. There was also a small hole in a wall leading to an adjacent lab, he said.

Ervin said the hoods -- about 3 feet by 5 or 6 feet by 4 feet, consist of three walls and a front that opens and closes. Fumes are sucked from the building through an air vent, he said.

Dichlorodimethylsilane is highly flammable and can cause damage to mucous membranes of the respiratory system and second- and third-degree burns, Ashmar said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency Web site warns of the chemical, "Breathing the vapor can kill you. Skin and eye contact causes severe burns and blindness. Reacts violently with water to form toxic hydrogen chloride."

About 100 firefighters were on the scene Wednesday night from companies including Trexlertown, Lower Macungie, Fogelsville, Alburtis and Cetronia. The Lehigh County Haz-Mat team also was there, as were County Executive Jane Baker and Emergency Management Director John Conklin.

The explosion brought a handful of spectators who watched firefighters in action from the other side of a large chain-link fence.

They all had their own reasons for being there. Cindy McNabb, 40, was at a nearby soccer game with daughter, Ali, 17, when her husband, Brent, assistant chief of the Lower Macungie Fire Company, was called to the blast. "I'm here to make sure that he's all right, everybody's OK," she said.

Robbie Beitler, 17, of East Texas, came out with four friends because "We're just curious, we just saw those ambulances up the road," he said.

"We were just driving around and we saw all of these firetrucks," said one of his friends, 16-year-old Brian Moyer.

A couple of the spectators identified themselves as Air Products employees, but declined to give their names.